Black spot (South Africa)

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As Black spot ( Afrikaans : swartkol , German : "black spot" mutatis mutandis "dangerous problem area") are in South Africa called small areas owned by the black population in those regions whose land was used mainly by white owners for residential and commercial purposes . Due to the unequal living conditions as a result of longstanding colonial segregation tendencies and the later apartheid policy, island-like social and economic conflicts developed between the population groups. In the course of the homeland consolidation before their independence, the black spots served some Bantu leaders as a negotiating instrument with the South African government.

General

The civil rights for the inhabitants of European descent, on the one hand, and the majority, other population groups in southern Africa, which have been progressively and deliberately unequal designed by a "white" supremacy since the 19th century, hampered the necessary balance of interests among each other. Essentially, these conflicts of interest concentrated on the free choice of place of residence, the acquisition of land according to equal rights and the use of land as a livelihood as well as the recognition of tribal land as a property title within the European legal norms.

As a solution to these conflicts of interest and in the course of the so-called reorganization of land distribution in the South African Union, the authorities were enabled on the basis of the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936 to dissolve such black spots through expropriation . The Tomlinson Commission , founded in 1950, reaffirmed this objective in its report, which was submitted a few years later, in which it recommended a “land reclamation policy” as one of the three key points of future government action in the apartheid system.

There were also purchases by the state. In the case of tribal land, the Bantu administration often offered alternative areas at a minimal comparative value, but not necessarily in areas of equal value.

As a new place of residence, the people affected were assigned so-called released areas , which were located in the vicinity of reserves or later homelands . The people militantly displaced by police were assigned to the reserve / homeland that best corresponded to their ethnic classification according to the official government guidelines.

According to this procedure, the South African authorities between 1948 and 1970 lost more than 100,000 people who were once legally secure. Another 304,980 Africans were forcibly relocated between 1970 and 1979. It was at Black spots next to scattered groups of houses or huts also to village settlements. In the case of the village of Driefontein (now part of the local community of Merafong City ), demonstrations broke out on April 2, 1983, when Saul Mhakize , the spokesman for the resistance committee, was shot dead by the police . The village's land had been legally acquired in 1912 by the South African Native Farmers' Association with the support of Pixley ka Isaka Seme .

In the legislative and administrative process before the independence of the Bantu states, some leaders from the now self-governing homelands demanded that their territorial boundaries be rounded off. In this context, Chief Lucas Mangope ( Bophuthatswana ), Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi ( KwaZulu ) and Cedric Phatudi ( Lebowa ) called for the incorporation of further areas with their residents, referring to the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act , which provided for an expansion of the native settlement areas .

Historical connections

The historical roots for the restrictive handling of the black spots began in the land distribution policy of the Cape Colony , which initially provided for a regional concentration of black landowners with the Glen Gray Act of 1894. Another, not insignificant path was taken in the former Boer republic of Orange Free State , whereby the later Basutoland lost its area through minor military operations. It finally came under British protectorate in 1868 and in fact became the most important native reserve for the Orange Free State. Within this republic only Thaba Nchu and Witsieshoek remained as small residential areas for blacks.

After the founding of the Union of South Africa , the Natives Land Act of 1913 forbade whites to acquire land within the officially declared native reservations. The associated regulations met with support from the representatives of the black population, as it was hoped that a land reform would be beneficial for them . In this process, the South African legislation consolidated the view that narrowly limited parts of the country should only be reserved for Africans for their habitat and, in return, the preferential protection of most of the South African Union for residents of European descent should be promoted. With the same law the establishment of a commission was prepared to investigate the land distribution question further and to come up with proposals for its reorganization. This so-called Beaumont Commission worked between 1913 and 1916. However, a 1917 ruling by the Supreme Court Revision Department in the Thompson and Stilwell v. Kama case again restricted the restrictions contained in this law and declared them inapplicable in the area of ​​the Cape Province .

The policy of segregation in South Africa took on sharper forms during the tenure of Prime Minister James Barry Munnick Hertzog (1924–1939). Hertzog's government continued to divide the country between white and black by also relying on recommendations made by the Inter-Colonial Commission in 1903. In its work report, the latter suggested that in future the separation of “black” residential areas from those of whites and that such reservations be legally fixed. Under the impression of the increasing effects of the crisis in the course of the Great Depression , redistribution plans for land ownership again became politically attractive.

The Natives Service Contract Act of 1932 was even supposed to impose a tax of £ 5 a year on every native who lived on white farmland and was not employed by the landowner and therefore had to be paid by him. However, this provision could not be enforced.

As a result of the land distribution proposed in 1903, the parliament of the South African Union passed the Natives Trust and Land Act in 1936, which had a significant impact . Since it came into force, it has now been easier for the authorities to take official and targeted action against the black spots throughout South Africa .

literature

  • Ellen Hellmann , Leah Abrahams (Ed.): Handbook on Race Relations in South Africa . Cape Town, London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1949.
  • Liberal Party of South Africa: Blackspots: a study of Apartheid in action . Pietermaritzburg 1964
  • Christoph Sodemann: The laws of apartheid . Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-921614-15-5

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1973 . Johannesburg 1974, pp. 146-147, and footnote 6
  2. ↑ Sodemann, p. 76
  3. ↑ Nomhlangano Beauty Mkhize at thepresidency.gov.za (English), accessed April 1, 2018
  4. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1974 , Johannesburg 1975, pp. 182-183
  5. ^ Edward Roux: Land and Agriculture in the Native Reserves . In: Handbook Race Relations, p. 172
  6. ^ Edward Roux: Land and Agriculture in the Native Reserves . In: Handbook Race Relations, p. 173
  7. ↑ AM Keppel-Jones: Land and Agriculture Outside the Reservates . In: Handbook Race Relations, p. 191
  8. ^ Edward Roux: Land and Agriculture in the Native Reserves . In: Handbook Race Relations, p. 173
  9. ↑ AMKeppel-Jones: Land and Agriculture Outside the Reservates . In: In: Handbook Race Relations, p. 193